Are our Math Students in Madison doing well? As per the Math Task Force response regarding Geometry in Madison the Average Graduating Grade is some where around a C Minus to D. Does that speak well of our Math Programs?

Where has the Excellence in Madison Schools Gone?

While our children attended Crestwood Elementary School as a parent of three daughters I started to see a change in just 6 short years.

Even though our children had many of the same Teachers while attending elementary school the process of math radically changed from learning how to subtract, multiply, divide, percents and fractions.

My wife and I saw this change in our youngest daughter, it wasn’t just in Math but in the entire Elementary school Program at Crestwood.

Although she has symbol and number deciphering concerns, she and other students that followed were allowed to Guess at their Math answers (No Correction was made). Spelling was all about sounding out a word and spelling how it sounds to you! Using the tool of writing and spelling stopped. The process of learning was very free form in the classrooms as well as the many daily distractions.

There was never any correction in her Middle School years either. In 9th. Grade Alegebra they are allowed to complete a section of Math called Essentials until they have it correct it doesn’t matter how many times it takes a student to complete the Essentials portion. The student always is given a 60 and it counts 100%.

Can you see how maybe this could cause students to believe that maybe they don’t really have to pay attention or be responsible for learning how to solve problems when they are allowed to just do it and do it until they get it right…

How many times can you or I do something wrong and nothing will be said?

Mr. Mertz or Nate do you have children in the school district?

I wouldn’t be saying much if I didn’t have a daughter who must find a way to adapt to a more verbal teaching environment. Our first two daughters fit the Teaching Models Used Frequently in Madison Schools but if you have ever had a child who just doesn’t get it, needs a different method of how information is presented to them then maybe you might begin to understand what I have written.

The majority of students in Madison are struggling compared to just 10 years ago.

These are the children we must help. Madison students go to school and it’s up to those in the educational profession to find a way to help All children become productive adults.

I know how hard we have had to work outside of school because school is not adapting quickly to the needs of the students it is serving.

Respectfully,
Don Gors

P.S. There is a difference when people see others struggle and are dedicated to helping meet the resource needs of our students.

Most district tests guide instruction, whereas, the state are more normative. It gives little information about how ones children are doing, but a breadth of information how one group, state, or individual are doing compared to others. The district bean counters get really excited about the latter data, most teachers prefer the former.

The tests he refers to tend to be taken in the fall which actually give little information about how a 4th grader is doing on 4th grade content because the year just began. If we wanted to know how Johnny has mastered 4th grade content we’d do it in June not October.

There is a belief that some students do poorly not because of the content but because tests are a genre kids have little awareness of. In a NCLB world this argument probably has less validity. Because of this there is quite a lot of emphasis of practicing those state tests in the setting the real ones will be taken in.

Ideally, the emphasis should be on the genre or format not the content specifically. One example in math would be input boxes where students apply a rule. So, a child may very well know how to count up or down by 2 or 3, but the input boxes on the tests may be foreign. I would also add that those practice weeks tend to go beyond the genre practice.

I would agree with him in that students are being exposed to the content in a rush fashion because its on the test, and that it lacks pedagogical logic. The norm is two weeks of “practice” and then two weeks of “tests” and then a week for makeup.

Overall, I think he is as confused as many about the function of these state tests. I had one parent try to argue teachers were deflating grades so they would not qualify for Doylie’s Covenant program. The parent’s argument was since his son received advanced (almost an 80 point range) that somehow a grade of B in Math was entirely unjustified. The point being many wrongly assume these normative tests assess individual ability or mastery which they do not.

I would concur that Arlene would be the better bet.